Truvelo launches new AMRIS 20×42 mm rifle

Written by defenceWeb -

21st Sep 2018

1732

It is light enough to be carried in a sniper’s backpack but powerful enough to take out a vehicle.

That’s the premise of Truvelo Armoury’s 20x42mm AMRIS or Anti-Materiel Rifle, Integrally Suppressed, a rifle that can fire a range of 20mm payloads from high explosive to armour piercing and SAPHEI (semi-armour piercing high explosive incendiary), which was revealed to the public at AAD 2018, currently being held at Air Force Base Waterkloof.

It has been 45 years since Truvelo Manufacturers began making speed cameras for traffic law enforcement. The move towards firearms was the passion of the founding CEO Joe Gebert, who started Tuvelo Armoury in 1994, first making rifle barrels and then segueing into high accuracy custom rifles for hunting and now for law enforcement and the military.

Today the company produces barrels from 5.56mm to 20mm and highly accurate sniping rifles from 7.62×51 Nato all the way to 20×110 Hispano. The anti-materiel rifles start with 14.5x114mm with four 20mm models: 20x42mm; 20x82mm; 20×110; and, as of yesterday the 20x42mm AMRIS.

As salesman Elardus de Lang explains: “it’s a much cheaper option than calling in an airstrike or firing a missile, indeed the fact that it is subsonic with a suppressor makes it an ideal sniper’s secondary weapon, fitting snuggly inside a backpack when the butt is folded, shortening the rifle from 1100mm to 815mm. Weighing 10.2kg without a scope it is easily carried by a single soldier, unlike the 1 824mm long 20x110m Hispano which is normally mounted on a tripod, weighs a total of 32kg and is served by a three person team.
“This,” he says, “is a force multiplier. It’s for hard target intervention. Most manufacturers stop at the .50cal, but for us, that’s our medium calibre.”

The 20x42mm AMRIS is specc-ed according to the manufacturer at 2 MOA (minute of angle) accuracy at 500m with a range of 1 000m (ammunition dependent); its bigger siblings with longer cartridges have longer ranges, with the 20x110mm Hispano almost double the 20×42 AMRIS, but that’s exactly the point.

The fact that the rifle has a suppressor at the end of the barrel and fires subsonic rounds means it’s an ideal sniper weapon to complement Truvelo’s .338 Lapua, a more conventional precision rifle for anti-personnel targets.

Most of Truvelo’s rifles are in service in the Middle East and South East Asia, but Truvelo will now be providing its .338cal; 7.62mm and .50 cal rifles to the South African Army after receiving an order recently.